I thought our second unit was the reason we got back in the game and played the way we played. They came in and changed the game -- Maurice Cheeks

WASHINGTON –
Josh Smith did the most offensive damage Saturday night but it was the Detroit
Pistons' bench that sparked a 104-98 victory over the Washington Wizards.

Smith scored
21 of his game-high 22 points in the second half but the bench kept the game
from slipping away from the Pistons (17-23) after they fell behind by 10 points
late in the first quarter.

Instead of
falling apart like they did in Friday's 21-point home loss to Utah, the Pistons'
bench didn't allow the Wizards (19-20) to pull away until Detroit was able to
get straightened out after the intermission.

Rodney
Stuckey scored nine of his 20 points in the second quarter, when Will Bynum had
six assists. And in the third, Kyle Singler picked up seven of his 14 points en
route to finishing 5-for-6 shooting from the floor.

"Everybody
came in and contributed," Stuckey said. "Will came in and did a good job for us,
Kyle as always, myself. Just try to hold it down and then Josh came in (during)
the second half and played the way he's supposed to play.

"Yesterday's
game was all effort. We didn't come out with any effort and we didn't compete.
Tonight, we did that."

The Wizards
led 54-46 after the first half before Smith found his rhythm in the third
quarter.

After
missing all six shots he attempted while scoring one point in the first half,
Smith had 12 points in the third quarter as the Pistons took a 79-76 lead to
the fourth, when Smith made all three of his shots and scored eight more
points.

Despite the
poor start that landed him on the bench at the start of the second, Smith didn't
get discouraged.

"It's
something I had to build within myself, knowing my shots weren't falling,"
Smith said. "But I wanted to stay positive, stay aggressive. And then they were
able to go down for me in the second half.

"We stayed
with it early on or it would have been a turnover effect where 10 (points down)
would have went to 15 and 15 would have went to 20. We stayed positive.

"The bench
guys came in and gave us great energy and whenever we had an opportunity to
come back into the game, we did good to try and finish it out."

Brandon
Jennings added 14 points for the Pistons, Greg Monroe had 12 to go with 10
rebounds, and Andre Drummond had his Eastern Conference-leading 29th
double-double of the season with 10 points and 13 rebounds.

Not losing
their composure after falling behind was important for for the Pistons after
they were booed off the floor following Friday's loss to Utah, which led by two
points after the first quarter before outscoring Detroit 31-20 in the second.

"I talked
about ... just continue playing hard," coach Maurice Cheeks said in reference to
his words at halftime. "I talked about being able to get something out of the way
we played. Clearly, last night was not one of our better games but I thought
the effort we put in tonight was even better.

"I thought our
second unit was the reason we got back in the game and played the way we played.
They came in and changed the game."

In the
second half, the Pistons' defense improved and contained the Wizards, something
that hasn't been happening as of late.

They held
the Wizards to 22 points in each of the final two quarters while scoring 58 points
in the second half.

Rookie
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope delivered two of the game's biggest defensive plays,
blocking a shot by John Wall with 3:11 left and the Pistons leading 95-90
before stealing the ball from Martell Webster with 14.9 seconds left and Detroit
ahead 102-98.

Webster
fouled Jennings after Caldwell-Pope's steal and Jennings made both free throws
to secure the Pistons' third victory in four games.

"It was big,"
Smith said about Caldwell-Pope's block on Wall, who scored 34 points. "It was
really big not to give up on the play and make a good play for us.

"That one
and the steal on Martell Webster to seal the game were two big defensive plays."